MUMBAI: The rupee closed at 91.75 against the dollar on Friday, down 15 paise from the previous close of 91.6, after a largely range-bound session marked by pressure from higher crude oil prices and foreign fund outflows.Suspected intervention by the central bank too influenced market movements. Heavy selling in domestic equities and withdrawals by foreign investors weighed on the currency. However, losses were limited after the US administration allowed refiners to continue purchasing Russian oil for 30 days, easing concerns over global energy supply disruptions linked to the conflict in West Asia.“With crude remaining firm, the rupee could continue to face downside pressure in the near term. The expected trading range for the currency is 91.25-92.50, with commodity prices and dollar index movement remaining the key drivers.” Said Jateen Trivedi, an analyst with LKP Securities.

Mumbai: Powai police have arrested a Bihar-based real estate agent in connection with recovery of five live bullets from a BTech student’s bag in his IIT-Bombay hostel room last month.The accused, Prashant Raj (24), was apprehended from Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh on Feb 26, based on information provided by Sarvottam Chaudhary (23), a college dropout from Bihar who was arrested on February 19 for allegedly keeping the live ammunition in his friend’s bag during his visit as a guest on the Powai campus on February 12. Chaudhary had allegedly confessed to purchasing the bullets for Rs 3,500 from Yadav, and said that he had failed to strike a deal to buy a gun.The bullets were found in the BTech student’s bag on February 19, when IIT-B security personnel searched rooms in hostel number 1 for alcohol bottles after a fight broke out between two students, who were allegedly drunk. Chaudhary was nabbed when he again visited the campus on February 19.

NEW DELHI: Government will use “every policy tool and the export promotion mission” to support exporters in the ongoing crisis in West Asia, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday. “We are in complete engagement with exporters. Every day, the inter-ministerial group talks to exporters and takes feedback. We will not be found wanting in supporting our exporters in any way,” Goyal said.Goyal told reporters on the sidelines of an event by the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) that govt set up a help desk and an inter-ministerial group that engages with exporters daily to review the situation and gather feedback.Exporters faced disruptions such as higher freight rates, demurrage charges, longer shipping routes and shortages of containers following the conflict involving the US, Israel and Iran, and sought govt support to deal with rising logistics costs.Goyal said the commerce ministry is in dialogue with the ministry of shipping and shipping companies to address concerns about cargo ships stuck in the Persian Gulf. “We are in dialogue with the ministry of shipping and with shipping companies. I hope we will find a resolution to this issue,” he said. The minister also said India will continue to meet its commitments to international buyers despite the disruptions. “We will continue to ensure that all our international commitments are met. Even during the Covid pandemic, India met all its international commitments, which earned us the acronym of a trusted partner, and we will continue to be the trusted partner of the world,” he said.In 2025, India imported goods worth about $157 billion from the region while exports to West Asian economies stood at around $67 billion.

NEW DELHI: With West Asia-bound cargo ships stranded in India due to conflict in the region, shipping ministry on Friday directed all 12 major ports to consider requests for reduction, waiver or remission of charges, including for storage rent, reefer plugging and change of vessel.The ministry said ports may permit storage of cargo destined for West Asia as transshipment cargo during the affected period, allot additional storage area and facilitate movement of export cargo lying in ports back to the domestic market in co-ordination with customs. They have also been asked to provide priority handling for perishable cargo to prevent deterioration and facilitate additional bunkering capacity to meet potential demand.The directions came barely hours after shipping secretary Vijay Kumar chaired a virtual meeting with stakeholders, including ministries, shipping lines, oil PSUs, companies and exporters, who flagged the imminent possibility of congestion at ports and shortage of containers in the next two-to-three weeks. There was also a suggestion to allow more foreign-flagged vessels to transport domestic cargo to tide over shortage of ships and containers, amid rising freight costs.As per shipping ministry, there are 11 vessels at different Indian ports destined for Persian Gulf and another 35 Indian-flagged vessels in the region.DGFT informed the stakeholders that department of financial services was holding meetings with insurance firms, General Insurance Council and Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of India to address the issue of spike in insurance premiums. It also informed that RBI has held a meeting with Indian Bank Association and SBI and banks operating in the West Asia region have been asked to allow their staff to work from home to ensure shipping lines, exporters and importers don’t face problems.Kumar said port authorities have been directed not to put any additional charge.

NEW DELHI: A shipping lobby group and a state-run oil company on Friday sought security escort for vessels moving in and out of the Strait of Hormuz, the channel for oil and gas supply from West Asia, while also suggesting access through other ports, such as Yanbu in Saudi Arabia, to ensure uninterrupted flow of energy and other commodities from the crisis-hit region.At a high-level inter-ministerial meeting chaired by shipping secretary Vijay Kumar, companies urged govt to direct ports to waive demurrage charges and other levies, such as for detention and plug-in for stuck cargo and containers at ports.HPCL, among other companies present in the inter-ministerial meeting, said its vessels loaded with crude and LNG were stuck in the Persian Gulf, with another three empty ones waiting to enter.

Indian Shipowners’ Association (INSA) also joined in the demand for security for vessels, while citing how Indian Navy as part of Operation Sankalp had come to the rescue of shipping lines from piracy, hijacking and attacks by the Houthis in Red Sea in 2024. The industry body is said to have also flagged the issue with the Indian Navy.According to officials, the shipping secretary said action by the Navy and external affairs ministry would depend on evolving geopolitical situation.A Reliance Industries representative proposed easing of age norms for vessels docking at Indian ports as part of a plan to boost availability of ships, a person familiar with the discussions told TOI.Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (Apeda) flagged the risk to basmati and fruits and vegetables exports to the region and said it is in talks with logistics company DP World to take fruits, especially bananas to ports close to Dubai, so that they can be shipped by road. Nearly 3,000 containers of basmati and 1,000 containers of banana and grapes are currently in high seas and headed for the region.Association of Multimodal Transport Operators of India suggested that the fruits could be taken to Sharjah and Khor Fakkan ports and from there these can be transported to other cities.

NEW DELHI: India’s medical technology (medtech) sector is set to get its first dedicated investment fund, which will also support the government’s ‘Make in India‘ push. A clutch of investors and industry veterans led by Ganesh Sabat, former CEO of SMT (Sahajanand Medical Technologies), a major cardiac stent player, are floating a Rs 1,000 crore growth-stage fund. So far, private equity investors and investment entities have focused on the broader healthcare space, as against backing the standalone medtech sector. In another first, govt could invest around Rs 500 crore in the fund, under its Research Development and Innovation (RDI) scheme. The fund, MedArtha Capital, recently secured Sebi approval, plans to deploy capital over the next two-to-three years, backing 10-12 small but high-growth medtech companies, its founder and managing partner Sabat told TOI.MedArtha Capital, with an eight-year life cycle, has submitted an application under the RDI scheme, which allows eligible entities to receive investment support of up to 50% of the total fund size, he added. The govt scheme, with a Rs 1 lakh crore corpus announced last year, is designed to spur investment in the R&D and innovation ecosystem.Positioned as a scale-up platform rather than an early-stage pool, the fund aims to support companies in the Rs 30-80 crore revenue bracket that require capital and operating expertise to expand manufacturing and compete in a market still dominated by imports, Sabat added. The segments include MRI machines, CT scanners, devices for cathlabs and neurovascular devices addressing stroke and heart failure– areas where India remains heavily import-dependent. The strategy also includes building contract development and manufacturing capabilities in the medtech sector, which is non-existent at present.